


Thirty Years From Now

by vorpatrils



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-13
Updated: 2014-07-13
Packaged: 2018-02-08 18:09:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1951056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vorpatrils/pseuds/vorpatrils
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the age of thirteen a King orders her married. At the age of twenty-one another King orders her married. At the age of thirty-four Sansa Stark chooses her own husband.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thirty Years From Now

Sansa’s firstborn is a son,one of a set of twins born only weeks after her fifteenth nameday. Lord Tyrion had hoped to spare her himself and the birthing bed until she was older, stronger, more suited in body to bear a child but Lord Tywin had eventually threatened her lord husband sufficiently to persuade him to come to her bed. Sansa never learned what he had threatened him with and hoped she never would.

The boy was a dwarf, small and stunted and with twisted legs. They took him her arms red and crying and he was returned to her still and grey. The child was not named or claimed by any Lannister but his father.

Margaery comforts her, saying that the child was lucky that for the short hours of his life he was loved by his Mother as surely Lord Tyrion had not been. Cersei warns her to do better next time.

One night Tyrion comes to her drunk and angry and sobbing begging her forgiveness for his death, for his murder, if only he had been there, if only he had not fathered him in the first place- Sansa had nodded and thanked him for a son, any son, before going to check once more on pretty, perfect, living Cersei. Named by her doting cousin the King, Sansa sometimes cannot bear to look at her Lannister looking daughter and it sickens her to her core.

\-----

_Lady Lannister_

_I hope this letter finds you and Lady Cersei well._

_Margaery has told me that His Grace Joffrey Baratheon will not allow her to see yourself or Cersei until such time as they have a child of their own, her own delicate heart and mind so troubled by their continuing childlessness, her husband will not let her harm and upset herself by seeing another woman’s child whilst she holds no child of her own in her arms._

_I hope I do not overstep but my sister insists upon hearing news of you and the child. In addition, I am newly come to the city and castle and would find your husbands advice useful. Would you and your Lord husband care to dine with myself and my lady grandmother this evening?_

_Lord Willas Tyrell._

\-----

_Lord Tyrell_

_I would be glad to dine with you, as would my husband. He says he has much to tell you of the city that a young man might find interesting and more of the intrigues of the court._

_Lady Sansa Lannister_

\----

Cersei is three when she gains a brother. He is called Tygett and he is born at Casterly Rock. Father was sure this was to be a boy and had insisted he be born in his ancestral home. She thinks he is a funny looking thing, small and wrinkled and looking more like Mother than Father.

She says so to her father one night.

Father smiles and says she likes that his son looks so much like her Mama. Cersei pouts and asks if Mama does not find her pretty because she does not look like her. Father smiles at her and says that even if she looked like a scarred dog Mama would find her pretty.

Cersei giggles and kisses his cheek when Father puts on the most hideous face he can make, teeth bared and scar twisting what little was left of his nose.

\-----

_Dearest Sansa_

_I am glad to hear that you have been safely delivered of a son. I admit I wept upon hearing it, so happy that my dearest friend still lives. I have the greatest news to share. I am with child! At least three months gone, or so the new grandmaester says. His Grace says he shall deliver me to Casterly Rock soon, for the child’s sake and mine. They say that Aegon Targaryen lives! What nonsense. But still the golden company shall soon be on our shores._

_Oh yes, Willas has also enclosed some of his writings on the growing of fruit in bad soil or somesuch. He says you shall know what he is writing about._

_Margaery Tyrell Baratheon, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms_

\----

_Lady Sansa Lannister_

_I must beg of you to keep my sister in Casterly Rock. The war will come and the throne will change hands I am sure of it. Whether Aegon is a pretender or not I still do not know but he is our only chance of peace. But Daenerys Targaryen -truly herself- has come to Westeros with dragons. Even now she lies in wait in Dorne. I am told she means to go to the Wall, to fight instead of claiming her father’s throne. Aegon and I have tried to convince her to stay by his side and combine her claim with his own but she has refused._

_It seems the rumors are true. The Other’s have returned. There will be a war in both the North and Kings Landing. I can only hope that you and the children will be seen as innocents by the new King. I have done my best to convince him and Princess Daenerys of this fact._

_Lord Willas Tyrell_

\---

Sansa is with child again when Tyrion and Joffery die. Some whisper of Faceless Men and the new King and some other’s of an unhappy wife with a fearsome lover. Sansa scoffs at this and gives birth to another daughter as green and gold as her sister. Margaery is at Casterly Rock when the child arrives. Margaery has no child of her own. Tommen is returned to them safe and well, a boy of ten. He is to be sent on to squire for Willas Tyrell soon.

\-----

_Lord Willas Tyrell_

_I am glad to know that Tommen has settled in nicely these past few months at Highgarden. It is pleasant to talk to at least one man who is not trying to either take my position as lady regent or make his daughter the new Lady Lannister. I thank you for your condolences._

_As per your question, Cersei and Tygett adore Genna. Though I must say, your attempts to be rid of Ser Garlan before he could even talk were rather heroic. I cannot help but imagine the hiding your mother would have (quite rightfully) given you for attempting to hide him away in a horse’s stall with a horse already in it. I can only imagine you had the sense not to do the same with Ser Loras, though given the pattern you make, I can only assume you attempted to put him in the kennels. I sincerely hope you did not attempt to hide your sister in a dovescote. Or perhaps a ravens rookery?_

_My children are not half so unruly as you were as a child my lord. I should sincerely hope they never are. I hope for health for all your family, including your new nephew, Please do not attempt to hide him anywhere_

_Lady Sansa Stark Lannister, Lady Regent Of The Westerlands_

\----

When Genna is a year old Margaery is sent to marry the new King.

\----

_Lady Sansa Stark Lannister, Lady Regent Of The Westerlands_

_You are invited to attend the tourney to be held at Highgarden in hour of the birth of Princess Elia of House Targaryen, to be held three moons from now._

_Mace Tyrell, Hand Of The King, Warden Of The South, Defender Of The Marches, High Marshal Of The Reach, Lord Of Highgarden_

\-----

Sansa loves the Reach. Cersei and Tygett enjoy it. There is a great feast to be held and there are whispers that the King plans to have her married. Willas tells her not to worry. She dances with him three times that night and he dances with Cersei twice. The King announces her marriage.

\-----

_Egg_

_Why? Surely there were others? Damn you._

_Gerold_

\-----

Willas sends her letters. She cannot bear to look at them and begs him to stop. She is already wed and with child again. That knowledge is bad enough, but to know he is also wed and his lady wife with child is unbearable. She sends her best wishes, misses her children and desperately wishes she was wed to him instead. This child only just barely come too early, but it will be her fifth. It will be expected.

\-----

_Lady Arryn_

_I thank you for your wishes and good will towards myself and my wife. I can only hope the same for yourself and your children, should you be blessed._

_Lord Tyrell_

\-----

Lysa is born in the beginning of spring. Sansa loves her, but still wishes for a son. She has given Tyrion Lannister two sons. Soon, she would give Harry a son. Then she can have her own son. Her own child, with her own name. She is only twenty three years old. She has time. There are rumors from the returning soldiers that her brother Bran is alive, that a boy was seen beyond the Wall with Stark colourings. Sansa dismisses the rumors, though she wishes she did not. Bran would be a man of twenty if he had lived. If only he had lived.

\-----

Harrold knows. He does not mind. He let’s her know. Near half the realm had expected to hear of a new Lady Tyrell. He cannot be angered when she had every reason to believe a swift marriage would be following. He has a girl of his own and would not see his wife’s daughters suffer. He doesn't think Genna likes him very much.

\-----

_Dearest Brother_

_You know she will not set the words on paper or speak them aloud, but yes_

_Margaery Tyrell Targaryen, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms_

\-----

She tries not to think of what her mother would say, her firstborn daughter passing off a bastard as her husbands trueborn daughter. She is lucky Lysa favours her.

\-----

On her twenty-eighth nameday Sansa births Harry a son. All four of her daughters are assembled this day, Thirteen year old Cersei and eight year old Genna keep Lysa and Rowena occupied in the nursery. Harry calls her son Robb.

\-----

_Dearest Mother_

_I hope you and the new baby are well. Does he look like me? Uncle Tommen says that Lysa and Rowena are very pretty. Uncle Tommen said I was a man grown today! He says that when he was ten he was a squire. I don’t want to be a squire. Why is Uncle Tommen still a squire? He won’t say and you know everything. Why does Uncle Tommen get to see my sisters more than I do? He says I met them once but I don't remember. Am I allowed to order you to visit me with them? Will you visit soon when you’re well? Aunt Margaery says having babies makes mothers feel sick._

_I love you best and most of all_

_Lord Tygett Lannister, Lord Paramount of the Westerlands._

\-----

_Lady Arryn_

_I have enclosed a book on the making and keeping of indoor glass gardens as Lysa asked. I thank you for your condolences. My lady wife was a good woman._

_Lord Tyrell_

\-----

After the girls have seen their new brother and she is left to rest Sansa weeps. Harry is a good man, though rather inconsiderate in his gallantry at times, having more than once ruined a girls reputation with rumors of her lordly lover by defending any slights to her honour like some gallant foolish knight.

She feels like he has cast a doom upon her son by naming him so and she resolves that she shall live long enough to see him married with a child in his arms. Already she can hear the whispers in her head, of meddling Tully-looking mothers and sons with crowns upon their heads.

\-----

_Lady Arryn_

_I will not lie to you in such a grave matter. I too have heard whispers of you meaning to raise your sons in rebellion. However I have publicly dismissed them as hearsay and fear mongering. How can you expect them to rebel when one is but ten and the other newly born?_

_In any case it is as you expected. King Aegon will soon ask you for the honour of taking Tygett as his squire. You must tell him of it and prepare him in advance. He has expressed to me that he does not wish to be a knight when I have attempted to mention it in my letters. I suppose it is up to you to convince him of it’s purpose, though if the boy is as smart as his father he may well have figured it out by now._

_Lord Willas Tyrell._

\-----

Upon the news of Harrold’s death Sansa weeps again. Not for her husband. Though a good man, she did not love him but she liked him well enough and he deserved to be mourned. Once more she has been cheated of a second son of her own to inherit Winterfell and she makes a point of writing to his Grace the King to ensure that Winterfell will still be his, should he ever come into existence.. Sansa does not bleed again for two moons after his death and she hopes against hope that she is with child, terrified that she shall awaken in a bed of blood.

She does, but there is not much pain. She knows there was no child this time. Tygett is twelve, Robb two and she thirty. Perhaps there will be no more sons for her, she thinks wearily. She is almost relieved. She thinks of her first son. Gods willing he was at peace. Gods willing none of her children would join the poor boy soon. Tyrion had never told her his name.

\-----

It is a year after Harrold’s death that she hears the news of the North. That her brother Rickon has retaken Winterfell. She is not the girl she once was, that would hope that Bran was alive beyond the Wall. She often thinks of her family long gone, now that her Cersei was wed to Princess Arianne’s eldest boy.

\-----

In the end Rickon comes to her. She cries in relief. She cries again when he weds Shireen Baratheon and they once more give her a place in Winterfell. The Lords of the Vale have made it clear there is no place for her in her son’s regency. Rickon and Tygett force them into letting her come and go as she wishes.

\-----

_Lord Willas Tyrell_

_It would please me if you would use proper salutations. My lord son gets rather suspect when he finds letters addressed to ‘Dearest Sansa’_

_Lady Sansa Stark_

\-----

_Lady Sansa Stark Lannister Arryn Stark_

_As you can see, I have rectified your complaint of the lack of your proper name in my salutations and that you no longer preferred the use of the others but putting things in order is helpful yes?._

_I don’t wish to seem like an impetuous boy of over forty, but soon?_

_Lord Willas Tyrell_

\-----

Tygett no longer looks over her shoulder when she reads her mail. After Willas’ last letter, she is glad of it. However, Tygett always makes sure Willas treats her with the highest respect and honour when he visits. For a man of twenty-three, Tygett is still very protective of his mother.

\-----

_Lord Willas Tyrell_

_When Rickon has a boy._

_Lady Sansa Stark_

\-----

_To my dearest Lady Sansa_

_Your son is near as tall as me. Tell him to stop growing, if he will. He will not listen to me. And no, I will not reject you for being too old. Garlan has his three boys._

_Lord Willas Tyrell_

\-----

Cersei thinks her mother rather a bit of a  fool for not immediately marrying Uncle Willas after suitable time has passed for Lord Arryn’s mourning. Uncle Willas takes her aside and explains to her exactly what is being said about her brothers. She thinks her mother rather smart after that and spends more time with her. Only Genna went to the Vale with her when she went to marry Lord Arryn. Cersei thinks that this may be the longest time she has spent in her mother’s presence since she was six. Besides, someone had to make sure the bride had no reason to announce a pregnancy too soon after a wedding.

\-----

_Lord Willas Tyrell,Warden Of The South, Defender Of The Marches, High Marshal Of The Reach, Lord Of Highgarden_

_Thank you._

_Lady Sansa Stark Lannister Arryn Stark_

\-----

Lysa still considered Lord Arryn her father. Out of all of this, she was most angry at the King. Mother had wept when she told her of her true father. Lysa made sure to give Mother and Uncle Willas a hug.

\-----

_Willas_

_We've waited long enough we can wait three more days. And not in front of my daughters if you please. You near traumatised Rowena when she found us. She is only eight._

_Sansa_

\-----

_Sansa_

_It would seem your Cersei is determined to make sure you keep your virtue anyway. Tygett is doing the same._

_Willas_

\-----

Sansa births two sons the first time. It is some trick from the gods, she thinks. But Rickon’s Stannis has taken the sting out if it. Brandon and Eddard are healthy boys.

\-----

_Willas_

_Yes I am with child. No, I am not talking to you._

_Lady Sansa Stark Lannister Arryn Stark Tyrell_

\-----

_Lady Sansa Stark Lannister Arryn Stark Tyrell_

_How was I to know one of my gooddaughters was already in the Library? I have at least a dozen. And yes, both Genna and Gwayne are amiable to the match, if all agree on it._

_Lord Willas Tyrell,Warden Of The South, Defender Of The Marches, High Marshal Of The Reach, Lord Of Highgarden_

\-----

_Aegon Targaryen, Sixth of his Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm._

_It is with great pleasure I announce a Tourney shall be held at Lannisport to celebrate the joining of Lord Gwayne Tyrell and Lady Genna of the Houses Lannister and Stark_.

\-----

Sansa Stark births her last child at the age of forty and holds her first grandson at the age of forty three with little Arya and Alerie craning to see their new nephew. She is glad that she has passed her childbearing years. She has given three men eleven children with five sons amongst them, and that is more than enough.

 


End file.
